BT 
.017 



Book *D 17 - 

COPYRIGHT DEPOSIT 



THE 



!Pj ^.':/.ri03Si 

A BO 'US I A. 



THE DISPENSATION 

OF 

THE PAKOTJSIA: 

OR 

THE PERSONAL PRESENCE 

OF 

CHRIST WITH HIS CHURCH. 



PUBLISHED BY 

BROWN & GROSS, 

HARTFORD. 
1876. 



COPYRIGHTED. 

JOHN S. DAVENPORT. 

1876. 



THE CASE. LOCKWOOD & BRAIN ARD CO., 

Printers 



5* 

THE PAKOUSIA: 

^ OR 

The Personal Presence of Christ with His Church. 

IT is the prevalent opinion of the great major- 
ity of Christians, both Roman Catholic and 
Protestant, that the condition in which the 
Church exists as respects the presence with her 
of Christ her Head, and her relation and posi- 
tion in this world, is to continue unchanged 
until there shall be a final consummation of all 
things. 

When the Lord was giving His disciples the 
promise that He would send to them the Holy 
Ghost to be their Paraclete, He said. "It is ex- 
pedient for you that I go away, for if I go not 
away the Paraclete will not come to you. but if 
I depart I will send him to you."' Jesus went 
away to His Father and sent down the Holy 
Ghost, and it is by the Holy Ghost that He has 
been present with His Church through the cen- 



4 



THE PAROUSIA. 



tnries until now. This period since the day of 
His ascension, is the period of His personal ab- 
sence, during which His promise, ; ' Lo, I am with 
you all days, even to the consummation of the 
age," has been fulfilled by the presence of the 
Holy Ghost, who is the Spirit of Christ. Christ 
is present to His Church not only by virtue of 
the omnipresence of His divine nature, but as 
the glorified Man. He is present by the pres- 
ence of His personal Spirit. Present — not only 
as God the Father is universally present, but 
present in a special manner, and by a special 
form of divine activity which is effective in the 
spirits of His faithful disciples. Christ is pres- 
ent with His Church, not merely as affording 
her providential oversight, protection, and guid- 
ance, but as by the Holy Ghost He makes the 
sacraments and ordinances that He has ap- 
pointed effectual for the perfecting of His 
saints. 

This is the condition of the Church in this 
dispensation. It is a supernatural society, to 
which the Lord is present by the Holy Ghost, 
while personally absent in Heaven. 

The prevalent belief is that this relation be- 
tween the Church and the Lord is to continue 



THE PAROL" SI A. 



until all that God has purposed to do for the 
salvation of men shall be accomplished, and 
then the end shall come, and a judgment and a 
consummation shall follow. 

Is this belief in accordance with the teachings 
of the New Testament ? 

There are numerous passages of Scripture 
which speak of the TLapovaia, — (Parousia.) — or 
the presence of Christ. The word is. with only 
twc or three exceptions, rendered " coming." in 
the authorized version, a rendering which tends 
rather to limit and obscure the sense. Its strict 
meaning is presence, being a derivative of the 
word Trapsi/M, — to be present. It is used with 
reference to others than Christ, but always of 
persons, as in I Cor. 16 : 1.7 ; I am glad of the 
(coming) presence of Stephanas, etc. See also 
Philip. 1 : 26: and 2 : 12: where it is rendered 
in the first case by coming, and in the second by 
presence, without any apparent reason for the 
difference. It is used also with reference to the 
Man of Sin. — 2 Thes. 2 : 9. --Even him whose 
(coming) presence is after the working of Sa- 
tan." etc. The presence is a result of a coming. 
i. e. he comes, or rises up. in order to be pres- 



6 



THE PAR OU SI A. 



ent: but the word expresses much more than 
the act or circumstance of the coming, or the 
approach. In fact I believe it is proper to say 
that the word does not in itself contain the idea 
of motion. The corresponding verb irapEifju is 
a strictly neuter verb, and is in most cases, even 
in the English version, rendered by a being 
present, — not including the idea of approach. 

This word Parousia, then, has the significa- 
tion of a personal bodily presence of the one to 
whom it relates. 

Now if in the several passages where the 
word is used in connection with the name of the 
Lord Jesus, we understand it as significative of 
a time, or period which shall be distinguished by 
the personal presence of the Lord with His peo- 
ple, as distinguished from the present dispensa- 
tion during which He is personally absent, we 
shall find a meaning in them which the word 
coming does not convey. Thus in Matt. 24: 3; 
" What shall be the sign of Thy presence, and of 
the end, or consummation of the age ?" What 
shall be the tokens of the close of this present 
age and of the introduction of the new era, dis- 
tinguished by Thy personal presence ? 1 Cor. 
15: 23. They that are Christ's shall be raised 



THE PAKOUSIA. 



7 



ev tyj napovarLa avrov, — rendered <■ at His com- 
ing," — at the time of His entering upon His 
period of personal presence, 1 Thess. 2: 19. 
" What is our hope, or joy, or crown of rejoic- 
ing ? Are not even ye before our Lord Jesus 
Christ, ev tyj avrov Trapovvla, at the time of His 
presence." Here is something more than a 
transient occurrence. There is reference to a 
new state of things that is continuous — a period 
of Presence. 2 Thess. 2:1. I beseech you. 
brethren, birep r?]c wapovaiae, etc, rendered, "by 
the coming," etc., — better, in respect to the 
Parousia of our Lord Jesus Christ, and our 
gathering together unto Him, (see 1 Thess. 4: 
17,) that ye be not lightly, or easily shaken 
from your mind, or be troubled, neither by 
spirit (that is, by any word of prophecy ye may 
hear), nor by word, nor by letter as from us, 
i. e. by any message or epistle which may pur- 
port to come from us. affirming that the clay of 
Christ, 'evearrjKevj has already come; (not. "is at 
hand," but is now present, is the meaning.) 
Here the day of Christ is identified with the 
Parousia; and "'the day of Christ" signifies 
more than a passing event, a mere transitionary 
stage from the temporal to the eternal condition. 



8 



THE PAROUSIA. 



The Old Testament use of the expression that 
day — the day of the Lord, which evidently looks 
forward to a period of time, a dispensation, a 
settled order of things upon the earth, when the 
hopes and expectations of longing hearts should 
be fulfilled, must determine the meaning of the 
equivalent expression, "the day of Christ." 
The day of the Lord spoken of by the Prophets 
was looked forward to as a period of redemp- 
tion and deliverance. It was the object of the 
first G-ospel that was preached, and of all the 
prophecies that followed. It was anticipated 
as the period of peace and rest, when "the wolf 
shall dwell with the lamb, and the leopard shall 
lie down with the kid, and the calf and the 
young lion and the fatling together, and a little 
child shall lead them." It is a superficial in- 
terpretation which makes the expression "the 
day of Christ " to signify only a transitory space 
of time, during which an assize is to be held, as 
it were. As a mere matter of interpretation, 
the general usage of the Bible, in both its divis- 
ions, may be appealed to for this. 

Now we conceive that it is this "day of Christ " 
that St. Paul refers to as the Parousia, looking 
to a higher condition of the Church than that 



THE PAEOUSIA. 



1) 



then (and now) existing — having in view not 
only a transient occurrence, but a fixed and 
extended era, a period in which many things 
will come to pass which are foretold in the 
prophets, but which have not been and cannot 
be accomplished in this present dispensation. 
Whoever considers the condition of the world, 
and the failure of the existing ordinances to 
extend the blessings of Christianity, must be 
convinced that, for the salvation of the human 
race and its subjection to the authority of Christ 
according to the grant given Him by the Father, 
a larger manifestation of supernatural power 
than was seen even in the first days of the 
Church, is required; and this will distinguish 
the period of the Parousia. 

The dispensation in which we are, which dates 
from Pentecost, consists in the institutions of 
the visible Church, as they were established by 
the Lord through His apostles, in men in mortal 
bodies. Through them the Holy Ghost has been 
working, to prepare as He could find them, the 
fitting instruments for His purposes. But it is 
manifest to all, that the grace afforded through 
these ordinances has not been effectual to carry 
the Salvation of Christ through the world. 



10 



THE PAROUSIA. 



The Church itself has, to a great extent, fallen 
away from the grace of God, and nothing but 
miraculous interposition, can render the ordi- 
nances of the Gospel to any great extent 
effectual for any large extension of Christianity 
over the earth. In fact, the Church in Christian 
lands is confronted by problems which she finds 
herself utterly unable to cope with, and difficul- 
ties she is not prepared to encounter. It- would 
seem, therefore, that if the Gospel of Christ is 
to gain any greater victories over the world, the 
flesh, and the devil, than she now gains, there 
must be some changes in the order of divine 
administration. Many are looking for a renewed 
outpouring of the Spirit to render effectual the 
present ordinances ; but what reason is there for 
this ? The ordinances which date from Pente- 
cost have been tried, and the wickedness of man 
has overcome their power. What can be ex- 
pected now but judgment, to come as the reward 
of unbelief and disobedience; and as the work 
of Salvation is not complete, and we do look for 
a farther display of divine power to bring the 
world into subjection to the Lord Jesus Christ, 
it follows that we must look for a new dispen- 
sation — a fresh ordering of divine institutions, 



THE PAB0USIA. 



1 1 



which shall be the channels of a larger outpour- 
ing of the Divine Spirit upon the world. This 
is what we are to look for in the Parousia. 

Every era must have its epoch, and the epoch, 
or the initial point from which this dispensation 
of the Parousia shall start, is the coming of the 
Lord from Heaven. This is spoken of in the 
Scripture in various terms: 

1. As the eir«f)av£ia, or the appearing of the 
Lord. See 1 Tim. 6: 14; 2 Tim. 4: 1-8; Titus 
2: 13. In all these cases the event spoken of is 
yet future; in 2 Tim. 1: 10, the word is used 
with reference to the first advent. 

2. This event is also spoken of as the revela- 
tion of Jesus Christ; as in Luke 17: 30; 1 Cor, 
1: 7; 2 Thess. 1: 7; 1 Peter, 7: 13. 

3. It is the event of which the Lord spoke 
Himself prophetically in Matt. 24: 30, and par- 
allel passages in Mark, chap. 13; and Luke, 
chap. 21; also announced in Acts 1: 11, "This 
same Jesus which is taken up from you into 
heaven, shall so come in like manner as ye have 
seen Him go into heaven"; and again by the 
apostles in their preaching, in Acts 3: 20, 21. 

4. It is referred to by St. Paul, in writing 
to the Thessalonians, when he says, — 1 Thess. 



12 



THE PAROUSIA. 



1 : 9, 10, il Ye turned to God from idols to serve 
the living God, and to wait for His Son from 
heaven, whom He raised from the dead, even 
Jesus, who hath delivered us from the wrath to 
come 1 '; — and again in that passage which there 
is no need to quote in full, in which he speaks 
of the resurrection of the dead, and the change 
of the living, in 1 Thess. 4: 13-18. 

5. Philip. 3: 20, 21, is another distinct ref- 
erence to it; — "Our conversation is in heaven, 
from whence also we look for the Saviour, the 
Lord Jesus Christ, who shall change the body of 
our humiliation that it may be fashioned like 
unto the body of His glory." 

6. A farther reference is to be found to this 
event in Heb. 9:28. " Christ having been once 
offered to bear the sins of many, to them that 
look for Him shall He appear, — otyOfoerai — shall 
be seen with the eyes — the second time without 
sin unto Salvation." 

These are but few of the passages — and I omit 
the Apocalypse, which is wholly occupied with 
it —in which the event which is the introduction 
of the Parousia is referred to. These passages 
do not speak of a closing up of the affairs of the 
world, — the destruction of the world and all 



THE PAEOUSIA. 



13 



things upon it, — but of the transition into a new 
dispensation, "the times of the restitution of all 
things — of which (times) God hath spoken by 
the mouth of all His holy prophets from the 
beginning of the age/' Acts 3: 20, 21; — a 
period in which all things shall be brought into 
subjection to Him, to whom the Father has 
given all power and authority, — "for He must 
reign until He hath put all enemies under His 
feet." His perfect reign begins when, at the 
sounding of the seventh (the last) trumpet, the 
voice is heard which says, " The Kingdom of 
the World has become the Kingdom of our 
Lord and of His Christ." Rev. 11: 15. 

We are thus from the Scriptures brought to 
the conclusion that this present order of things 
in which we live, with the constitution of society 
such as it now is, in its present relations of the 
Church and the State with one another, and 
with the ordinances of the Church as they now 
appear, is not the finality of God's provision for 
the full accomplishment of His purposes of sal- 
vation among men. The Saviour, the Lord 
Jesus Christ, has gone away into heaven and is 
at the right hand of. God, and is now by the 
Holy Spirit working, as He has been working 



14 



THE PAK0USIA. 



in all these centuries, for gathering His Church 
out of the world. "When that is done, and the 
full number of His elect is complete, He will 
come again and take His Church to Himself, 
and then will be carried on more effectually 
than hitherto, the work of Salvation and .the 
subjection of all things under His feet.* 

* Here it may be well to notice the objection that may be made 
that in the New Testament, this occurrence, which is referred to 
as the Parousia, is regarded as one near at hand, or which might 
be instantly expected. But there is a double answer to this diffi- 
culty. 1. No inspired declaration is found which affirms that the 
event would soon take place. The words of our Lord, "this 
generation shall not pass away until all these things be fulfilled, 11 
have, in the judgment of such a commentator as Alford, and of 
others referred to by him, a reference to the race of Israel, and 
indicate nothing concerning time. St. Paul, although in com- 
mon with the "Church at that time he probably expected that the 
event would take place even in his own life time, nowhere de- 
clares that it shall, and his first authoritative declaration on the 
subject in the 2d Epistle to the Thessalonians postpones it until 
after the appearing of the Antichrist, or the Man of Sin. There 
is therefore no impeachment of his inspiration in saying that in 
a matter not revealed to him he had a mistaken impression. In 
his Epistles he speaks in the name of the Church, using the 
nominative plural, and this language does not imply that the 
events spoken of would be fulfilled in the person of the individ- 
uals there addressed. When he says, " We which are alive and 
remain, 11 etc. ; " We shall not all sleep, but we shall all be 
changed, 11 he identifies himself with the Church that shall be 
alive upon the earth when these things come to pass. 

2. No event has occurred since Pentecost which can be repre- 
sented as the introduction of the Parousia, or the personal 
presence of Christ. The Church stands as it was then constitu- 



THE PAROUSIA. 



15 



Much yet remains to be done for completing 
the work of Salvation among men, but this work 
can only be accomplished by the Church in a glo- 
rified condition. The design of all God's pres- ' 
ent working is to gather His Church out of the 
world, and fit her for the appearing of His Son, 
that He may come and take her to Himself and 
use her for saving the world. The Church is 
not to remain in the world until the end of all 
things. The Church is God's Election, the body 
which He has predestined and chosen to be used 
as an instrument in saving the rest of the crea- 
tion. As an election it does not include all man- 
kind, nor by any means all who are to be saved 
by Christ. The Church attains the full meas- 
ure of her hope — her perfect and complete 
redemption, when her dead members are raised 
and the living ones are changed, and both 
together constituting the one Bride of the Lamb, 
are joined to Him in marriage, to be with Him 
for ever. This is the full u adoption, to wit, the 
redemption of the body." Rom. 8: 23. 

ted, with only the changes that men have introduced. None of 
the events which have most essentially affected her prosperity 
have answered to this foretold and looked-for Parousia, It fol- 
lows, therefore, that it is still future, and an object of expecta- 
tion to all faithful souls. 



16 



THE PAROUSIA. 



The recognition of this truth, of ■ a new dis- 
pensation to be introduced by a second advent 
of Christ Himself, helps to the understanding 
of many parts of Scripture, which are otherwise 
not clear. 

1. It explains the meaning of the exhorta- 
tions and warnings of Christ to watch and be 
prepared for His appearing, as in Matt. 24: 42, 
"Watch therefore; for ye know not in what 
hour your Lord shall come," etc. ; and 25 : 13, 
" Watch therefore, for ye know neither the day 
nor the hour wherein the Son of Man cometh. 
Mark 13: 35-37, "Watch ye, therefore, for ye 
know not when the master of the house cometh, 
at even, or at midnight, or at the cock crowing, 
or in the morning, lest coming suddenly He find 
you sleeping ; and what I say unto you I say 
unto all, watch " ; and parallel passages in Luke, 
and in the epistles of St. Paul and St. Peter, — 
see Rom. 13: 11-13; 1 Thess. 5:1-5; 1 Peter, 
1:13. To apply such texts as these to the hour 
of death, and to transform them into a warning 
to be prepared for the uncertain close of life, is 
a distinct perversion. They were not spoken 
or written with any such end in view, but grew 
out of the announcement or expectation of a 



THE PAROUSIA. 



17 



personal advent of the Lord. The hour of death 
is not in any sense the coining of Christ, for 
death is not His work. He came to abolish 
death, and it involves an entire misconception 
of His work and office to suppose or to teach 
that our departure from this life by death is an 
act of Him who came to destroy death.. Death 
is the wages of sin. and is an event in divine 
providence as regards individuals, but to identify 
the angel of death with Him who is the enemy 
of death, involves the widest possible departure 
from the teachings of the Bible. The coming 
of the Son of Man. for which we are warned to 
watch, and the hour of which we know not. is 
nothing less than the advent of the Man Christ 
Jesus, when He comes in His glory to take His 
kingdom and rule over the earth. 

2. The doctrine of a Second Advent, and a 
new dispensation, gives a clue to the interpreta- 
tion of the parables, many of which are other- 
wise but partially understood. There is the 
parable of the tares and the wheat, when at the 
end of the age the separation is made between 
the righteous and the wicked: "the end of the 
age" meaning the close of this dispensation. 

The parable of the net has a similar reference. 
2 



1 8 



THE PARCUSIA. 



But most especially is this applicable to the two 
parables in the 25th of Matthew,— those of the 
ten virgins and the talents. It will be seen 
that these parables are specially referred to the 
time of the Lord's coming, for it is then — see 
chap. 24: 48-51 — that the kingdom of heaven 
is like unto the ten virgins; then, at the time 
when the Lord returns, — when He as the Bride- 
groom comes to take His bride, and the marriage 
of the Lamb is come. This parable does not 
represent the Church through the dispensation, 
but at the close of it, when the cry is heard, 
" Behold the Bridegroom cometh, go ye forth to 
meet Him." So also the parable of the talents 
represents a process of inquisition and judgment, 
not upon all the world, but upon a certain por- 
tion of the Church, — the servants who have 
been entrusted with a certain charge, of which 
they are called to render account when their 
absent Lord shall return from the far country, 
having received the kingdom which He went 
away to obtain. 

3. The recognition of this truth gives a 
meaning to many of the Psalms, which is incom- 
plete without it. That the Psalms are prophetic, 
no one who is interested in reading this paper 



THE PAROUSIA 



19 



will call in question, and that Christ is the end 
and object of them is equally certain. But 
when are they to be fulfilled? "We see not 
yet all things put under Him," as we read in 
the eighth Psalm; nor are the heathen given 
Him for His inheritance, as in the second Psalm. 
He does not reign as Solomon, as in the seventy- 
second Psalm, but all these words are to be 
realized when he shall come again, in a new T dis- 
pensation. The grand, jubilant Psalms, from 
the ninety -third to the one hundredth, have a 
significance as prophetic of the Lord's coming 
and taking His kingdom, which otherwise is 
quite wanting. The earth is called upon to re- 
joice because " He cometh to judge — i. e. to rule 
— the world in equity, and the people with His 
truth." In fact this is true of the whole volume 
of prophecy, which has its accomplishment only 
in the day of the Lord. This is especially true 
of the Apocalypse, which is a foreshowing of 
i the revealing of Jesus Christ in His glory and 
majesty. 

4. This doctrine, too, casts light upon the 
teachings of the Scriptures in regard to the 
Resurrection. 

St. Paul in discoursing to the Corinthians, in 



20 



THE PAROUSIA. 



the 15th chapter of his first Epistle, is not speak- 
ing of an event which is not to occur until the 
end of the world, in the sense of the destruction 
of the Cosmos, when all things are to be burned 
up, and when the history of the human race has 
wholly run out, as is commonly supposed. He 
refers to an event which was ideally possible at 
a very early date, and which, in ail probability, 
he at the time expected as just at hand. He 
speaks of those "who are Christ's," by which 
he means the faithful members of His Church 
who have fallen asleep, who shall be raised " at 
His coming," — -ev rrj irapovcna avrov, — and adds 
"and afterward cometh the end." How dis- 
tinctly does this tally with the 20th chapter of 
the Apocalypse, which speaks of the first resur- 
rection of those who lived and reigned with 
Christ a thousand years, and then of "the rest 
of the dead, who lived not again until the thou- 
sand years were finished." The same Apostle, 
also, in writing to the Philippians, (3: 44.) in 
the prospect which then presented itself to him 
of his departure, speaks of striving to attain to 
the resurrection out from among the dead, — 
rrfv lc,avaara(jiv rrjv bk tGjv veKpwv — (Phil. 3: 11,) 
a form of expression which can be explained 



THE PAROU SI A 



21 



only by reading it as parallel with the other 
expression — they that are Christ's at His com- 
ing." 

But this period of resurrection has also a re- 
lation to the portion of the Body of Christ that 
is alive upon the earth. The whole Church 
comprises both living and departed, and at the 
time when the departed saints are raised, they 
that are alive and remain shall be changed and 
clothed with immortal bodies. " Then we which 
are alive and remain shall be caught up with 
them in the clouds to meet the Lord in the 
air." 

As respects the Church now living upon the 
earth, the entrance into this new condition is to 
be effected by translation — or transfiguration; 
by the act of Christ Himself, who coming from 
His Father's right hand shall change the body 
of our humiliation into the likeness of the body 
of His glory. "We shall not all sleep, but we 
shall all be changed." "'This mortal (not the 
dead, but the living mortal body,) must put on 
immortality. This corruptible (still living) 
must put on ^corruption." To effect this --the 
Lord Himself shall descend from heaven, with 
a shout, with the voice of the Archangel and 



22 THE PAEOUSIA. 

with the trump of God."* This conception of 
passing into immortality in the body, without 
tasting death, is one that is very foreign from 
-modern thought, although to the Christians of 
the first age it was plainly a very familiar one. 
See 1 Thess. 4:13; 2 Cor. 5: 1-4. It has come 
to be so much taken for granted that all men, 
even those who believe in Christ, must die. not- 
withstanding His words in John 11: 25, 26, that 
the bare suggestion of an immortal life to be 
attained without dying seems very like fanati- 
cism. It does, indeed, open a new line of 
thought in respect to Christian truth. It is to 
be hoped that it will not be rejected without a 
study of the Scriptures, to "see whether these 
things are so.'' 

This is not merely a matter of theory; the 
subject has a very important practical bearing 
upon the Church as a whole, and upon individu- 
als, in determining the aim and object of their 
exertions. If the appearing of the Lord, and 
our gathering together unto Him by the change 
of the mortal body, be the great object of hope, 



* See Rev. 11 : 15. 



THE PABOUSIA. 



23 



then the chief effort of the clergy should he. so 
to minister the ordinances of God's house with 
which they are put in charge, as to present every 
man perfect in Christ Jesus at His appearing, 
as was the constant aim of the Apostle Paul. 
Coioss. 1: 28, 29. 

The aim of those who hold positions of rule 
and of influence should he. no: to make the 
Church powerful for this world. — not to assume 
that in the present condition of weakness she is 
to conquer the world, and to look forward to a 
long continued career of worldly prosperity, but 
to bring the Church, as a collective body, into 
that condition that the Lord may come and take 
her to Himself. Those who. as pastors of the 
people, come in direct and immediate contact 
with souls should labor, not to prepare them to 
die. but to live in such a manner that when the 
Lord shall come they may be prepared to enter 
upon their immortal life with Him. 

The effort of every individual Christian should 
be, to live as those who are waiting and watch- 
ing for their Lord's return, anxiously desirous 
to do His will, to be clothed with the wedding 
garment, and to receive all the grace that He 
has provided to fit His servants to stand in His 



24 



THE PAROUSIA. 



presence. This is the purport of all the exhor- 
tations to watchfulness that we find in the Lord's 
addresses to His disciples. 

As long as the Church is in the world it is 
her function to preach the Gospel and witness 
for the truth and righteousness of God; but 
when the conception of this duty as devolving 
upon her degenerates into the conception that 
the Church is one of the permanent estates of 
human society, to take her place alongside of 
the civil government, and stand upon the same 
ground, it is a coming down from her super- 
natural standing. So also it belongs to the 
Church to remember the poor, and to be boun- 
tiful to the needy; to go about doing good to 
the bodies and souls of men, thus exemplifying 
the mercy and love of the Head, and following 
his example; but it is a derogation from her 
high standing to make her an eleemosynary in- 
stitution, or to inculcate the care of the poor as 
her special function. It is not the highest and 
best thing that can be done for the Church, to 
make her effectual among the poor and suffer- 
ing, however praiseworthy and acceptable to 
God such labors may be. The Church is God's 
institution for delivering men from the bondage 



THE PAROUSIA. 



25 



of corruption, not for making them comfortable 
in this present life. "Works such as these done 
on earth, and for the earth, may call into exer- 
cise the self-denial and benevolence of human 
nature, and thus promote the growth of Chris- 
tian charity, and are therefore conducive to 
spiritual improvement: but in so far as they 
tend to promote satisfaction with the present 
state and condition of the Church, they only 
hinder the attainment of the perfection to which 
we are called. While the Church is in the 
world she seeks and must seek to save the souls 
of men and minister to their bodies, but the 
great work which belongs to her of subduing 
the nations to the authority of Christ cannot be 
done by the Church in the mortal body. Not 
until she enters upon her immortal life, when 
all the members of the body are gathered into 
one, — the dead and the living, — not until then, 
can the power go forth which is to convert the 
nations. All efforts to consolidate and establish 
the Church, whether by intercommunion of the 
different branches of the divided Church, or by 
the union of sects as. in an evangelical alliance, 
or to convert the world to the faith of Christ 
upon the assumption of the continuance of the 



26 



THE PAROUSIA. 



present state of things by missions, are beside 
the purpose of God, and must fail of their in- 
tended effect. There is no expectation more 
utterly without warrant in Holy Scripture than 
that of the conversion of the world before the 
appearing of the Lord. In so far as such efforts 
divert attention from the true object of pursuit 
and desire, they are a hindrance to the accom- 
plishment of the very result for which they are 
organized. If we desire, as all must do, the 
conversion of the Pagan nations, the most effect- 
ive way to secure it is to be u looking for and 
hastening the Parousia of the day of God." 
(2 Peter, 3: 12.) When the Lord Jesus takes 
unto Himself His great power and reigns, when 
His Church is perfected by the change into the 
immortal life, then "the law will go forth from 
Zion, and the word of the Lord from Jerusa- 
lem," and the nations shall submit themselves 
to His control. 

Nothing will so effectually tend to the under- 
mining and expulsion of the spirit of worldli- 
ness in the Church, as the recognition of this 
as the true hope of the Church. It is in vain 
to preach or to declaim, however eloquently, 
against secularism in the Church, so long as 



THE PAROUSIA. 



27 



Christian people are taught and encouraged to 
look for a continued period of worldly success 
for her. Here is the very root of worldliness, 
and no asceticism or self-restraint of individuals, 
or brotherhoods, or sisterhoods, will eradicate 
or counteract it. It is the object, the outlook of 
the body, that determines the character of the 
members, and so long as Christians are encour- 
aged or allowed to look to an earthly future of 
success and prosperity for the Church as she now 
is. no amount of personal devotion will deliver 
them from the spirit of worldliness. 

Still the question may arise, is not this event 
of the appearing of the Lord too remote in time 
to have any practical bearing upon us ? 

It will generally be assumed that any such 
changes as are here implied, even if they be 
true, cannot be near at hand: that the time for 
the resurrection of the dead, and the change of 
the living, cannot be so near as to make "it a 
matter of interest to this generation. Such a 
conclusion is the result of a state of mind cor- 
responding to what St. Peter says: ,k ' There shall 
come in the last days scoffers, walking after 
their own lusts, and saying. "Where is the promise 



28 



THE PAROUSIA. 



of His coming, for since the fathers fell asleep 
all things continue as they were from the begin- 
ning of the creation." 2 Peter, 3: 3, 4. It is 
just the mental condition against which our 
Lord so earnestly warned His disciples, ' £ Watch, 
therefore, for ye know not when the time is." 
" Take heed lest your hearts be overcharged 
with surfeiting and drunkenness and the cares 
of this life, and so that day come upon you un- 
awares. Watch, therefore, and pray always, 
that ye may be accounted worthy to escape those 
things that are coming upon the earth, and to 
stand before the Son of Man." 

The dispensation in which we live has now 
been running nearly 1900 years, and instead of 
the long time since Pentecost being an argument 
against the expectation of a change, its force is 
exactly the reverse. If it be clear that there is 
to be such a change in God's operations among 
men, as has been indicated, the longer the period 
for which He has waited, the sooner may we 
expect the fulfillment. It is no argument that 
the early Christians anticipated the event of the 
Lord's appearing in their day, and were disap- 
pointed. All that has passed since then places 
us in a very different position. Eighteen him- 



THE PAR OU SI A. 



29 



dred years have afforded an opportunity for the 
full development of human nature under the 
light of the Gospel, and we can hut feel that a 
full course has been run. The present state of 
society throughout all the lands which are col- 
lectively known as Christendom, is one of change 
and transition. The prophecies of the Lord. 
" there shall be signs in the sun. and in the 
moon, and in the stars, and upon the earth dis- 
tress of nations with perplexity, the sea and the 
waves roaring, men's hearts failing them for 
fear, and for looking after those things which 
are coming upon the earth these prophecies 
never were more distinctly fulfilled than now. 
All thoughtful men are looking for change, 
some in one form, and some in another, but 
none are able to settle upon the future with any 
confidence. 

If we consider the length of time which this 
dispensation has run, as compared with that 
which preceded it. we shall find another argu- 
ment in favor of the expectation of a speedy 
change. Dating from the call of Abraham to 
the birth of Christ we have not far from two 
thousand years, and the lapse of a similar period 
of time for the present dispensation would con- 



30 



THE PAROL 1 SIA. 



stitute a symmetry in God's dealings in the 
work of redemption such as we naturally look 
for. On the other hand it may be safely 
affirmed, that there is nothing in the condition 
of human society that forbids such an expecta- 
tion. Nowhere is there any fixity or perma- 
nence in social institutions. The most stable 
governments do not feel themselves secure 
against change. There are few T of them in 
which it would much surprise us to hear at any 
time of revolution. This state of things pre 
sents a negative argument against the assump- 
tion of the continuance of the present order of 
things, and tends to confirm all that has been 
advanced in favor of the expectation of a 
change. To the same extent does it give point 
and emphasis to the exhortations which abound 
in the New Testament, for the Church to be 
prepared for the advent, or the appearing of the 
Lord. 

The transition to a new dispensation cannot 
take place without the intervention of heavy 
judgments upon Christendom. The state of 
things which has during all these centuries 
grown up, both in civil and ecclesiastical rela- 
tions, is such as to render the introduction of 



THE PAROL" SI A. 



31 



the kingdom of Christ and His perfect rule, 
both in Church and State, an impossibility, and 
hence the necessity for such an overturn of 
society as shall open the way for the entrance 
of the perfect way of God. Babylon, by which 
is meant the constituted order of society in 
Christendom which has grown Lip in the past 
centuries, must be overthrown, and her fall will 
carry with it all the institutions of society, so 
far as they are at variance with God's purposes. 
This is what is signified by the Lord's reference 
to the days of Lot, and the days of Xoah. as 
answering to "the day when the Son of Man is 
revealed." It is this which gives point and 
meaning to the exhortation — "Pray that ye may 
be accounted worthy to escape all these things 
that shall come to pass, and to stand before the 
Son of Man." 

Objection is made to the doctrine of a Second 
Advent and a personal reign of Christ, as de- 
rogatory to His dignity, and not in harmony 
with the spiritual character of His kingdom. 
It is difficult to answer this objection without 
entering upon a discussion which will lead into 
the very depths of Christian doctrine, even the 



32 



THE PAKOUSIA. 



truth of the Incarnation; but it may suffice for 
the present purpose to say, that the abiding per- 
sonal presence of Christ, for which the Church 
looks, is not such as it was in the days of His 
humiliation. It is not a presence in the gross 
material body in which He will be seen by the 
eyes of all the world. He comes again in the 
spiritual body in which He ascended to heaven, 
and His presence is with His Church. It is in 
the midst of them that He will manifest Him- 
self, so that they may see Him as He is. From 
the mere eye of mortal flesh He is veiled, but 
to His elect Church, His chosen and translated 
Bride, He will manifest Himself as He does not 
unto the world, and they will find that in His 
presence is fullness of joy. It is to His Body, 
which has been perfectly united to Him in the 
marriage of the Lamb, and that has received 
the immortal life by translation and resurrec- 
tion, that He appears, and continues in the 
midst of them for ever. 

The thoughts expressed above are doubtless 
quite out of the line of ordinary religious belief, 
but it is hoped that they will not for this reason 
alone be set aside as unworthy of consideration. 



THE FAROUSIA. 



33 



The idea of resurrection and translation is in 
the average religious mind regarded as some- 
thing so remote, and so separated from all the 
interests of earth, as an event which is not to 
occur until the life of the human race and of 
the world is about to be wound up. that it is 
difficult to conceive it. It is difficult to conceive 
of a body of men, a portion of mankind, having 
some relations and communications with men 
living in mortal bodies on earth, who yet are 
lifted up far above them, living in a supernatu- 
ral region and a supernatural state, that has 
either passed through the grave or been lifted 
up above its power. But it may be suggested 
whether such a hope as this is not just what is 
wanted to supplement the ordinary teachings of 
religion, and to impart new life to the whole 
company of the baptized people of God. This, 
in truth, is just THE HOPE to which the atten- 
tion of the faithful is directed in the Gospel. — ■ 
"that blessed hope, even the glorious appearing 
of the Great God and our Saviour Jesus Christ." 
Is not this hope of translation just the perfection 
to which we are taught to aspire ? It is admit- 
ted generally, and with truth, that perfection is 
not to be attained so long as we are in mortal 
3 



84 



THE PAROUSIA. 



flesh, from whence it is argued that it is of no 
use to aspire after it, and the hour of death is 
looked for as that which shall introduce faithful 
souls to their highest and perfect blessedness. 
If, however, we come to understand that it is in 
the immortal bod}' that we are to reach perfec- 
tion, and that the attainment of translation is 
the real and practicable object of our hope, then 
counsels of perfection, if they be legitimate, do 
not seem in vain, and the use of them is not 
abortive. In looking for the coming of the 
Lord, we are looking for the hour of perfection, 
and in striving to be prepared for it we are 
using the best means for reaching the prize of 
our high calling. Perfect salvation, which 
some are professing to have found, is only real- 
ized when the body is delivered from the bond- 
age of corruption. It will be evident, upon 
reflection, that a special preparation must be 
followed, having this end in view. " Where- 
fore, beloved, seeing ye look for such things," 
writes St. Peter, "be diligent, that ye be found 
of Him in peace, without spot, and blameless." 
"And now, little children," writes the apostle 
John, "abide in Him, that when He shall ap- 
pear we may have confidence, and not be 



THE PABOUSIA. 



35 



ashamed before Him at His coming/' It is 
quite manifest that the necessity of being pre- 
pared for such an event as the personal appear- 
ing of the Lord in the midst of His people, 
would exert an effect upon the religious con- 
sciousness quite different from that of merely 
aiming to lead a good life, or prepare for a 
quiet and happy death. To be '"counted wor- 
thy to escape the things that are coming upon 
the earth, and to stand before the Son of Man,' 1 
to aspire to be among those who stand with the 
Lamb upon the Mount Zion, free from guile 
and redeemed from the earth, (Rev. 14: 1-5.) 
is an object of hope and expectation quite be- 
yond that of mere personal salvation, or the 
maintenance of a correct Christian walk, or 
even any desire to do good upon the earth. 
Such a hope carries the thoughts away from 
this world, and is the only effectual antidote to 
the spirit of secularism which eats out the life 
of Christianity. It enlarges, too, the conception 
of the spiritual, grace that is needed for its at- 
tainment. ""Who- shall abide the clay of His 
coming, and who shall stand when He appear- 
eth ! " It is manifest that there must be some 
higher and more effective spiritual agencies than 



36 



THE PAROUSIA. 



any now operative in the Church at large, to 
raise its members, or any portion of them, to 
that spiritual condition that shall fit them for 
the transition into the stage of incorruption and 
immortality, in which they shall be able to see 
the Lord as He is, and to be like Him. 

And if it be asked, whence is this power and 
grace to come ? we must answer, it can come 
from God alone. There must proceed from 
Him a reviving of those gifts and that power- 
through which, in the beginning of the dispen- 
sation, the divine presence was made manifest 
in the Church: as St. Paul writes to the Corin- 
thians, "I thank my God always on your behalf 
for the grace of God which is given you by 
Jesus Christ, that in every thing ye are enriched 
by Him, in all utterance and ail knowledge, so 
that ye come behind in no gift, waiting for the 
revelation (marg.) of our Lord Jesus Christ.'' 
(1 Cor. 1: 4-7.) For many ages these manifes- 
tations have been wanting. God has not de- 
serted His sanctuary, but He has, as it were, 
withdrawn into the background and left His 
servants to work according to their own ways. 
The Church has lost the hope of the Lord's ap- 
pearing, and has departed from the perfect way 



THE PAROUSIA. 



37 



of God, and the Holy Ghost has been restrained 
in His operations so that the full measure of 
His grace has not been seen, and the ordinances 
which were ordained at the beginning for the 
perfecting of the saints have not produced the 
full effect of preparing a people for the Lord's 
return. There is no more complete proof of 
this than the unbelief which universally prevails 
as to the reality of a Second Advent. 

But it is the belief of many Christian people, 
both in Europe and in this country, that in these 
days God has. in His great mercy, restored 
these gifts of the Holy Ghost, and is now carry- 
ing on the work of making ready a people pre- 
pared for the appearing of His Son. He has 
given again Apostles to His Church, and with 
them the other ministries named by St. Paul, 
of Prophets, Evangelists, and Pastors: see 
Ephes. -4: 11. Through these ministries He is 
imparting the gift of the Holy Ghost, for seal- 
ing the first fruits. (Pev.. chap. 7 and 14. ) and 
by this and other forms of ministry is leading 
on those who faithfully submit themselves to 
them, to a spiritual condition which shall fit 
them for the transition into the condition of 
immortality, whenever the powerful voice shall 



38 



THE PAROUSIA. 



go forth from the Son of Man. Through these 
means God has restored the perfect constitution 
of His Church, as it was at the beginning, and 
is thus providing a Body meet for the Head, in 
which all the ministries and offices of the Lord 
Jesus can be shown out and brought into activ- 
ity, and the perfect model of the Church be set 
forth as the center and nucleus of a restored 
unity, that the Church may be presented to 
Christ as His Bride, — "a glorious Church, not 
having spot or wrinkle or any such thing, but 
holy and without blemish." The fulfillment of 
these conditions requires not only individual 
blamelessness on the part of the members, but 
also the presence and exercise in the body of all 
the ministries and ordinances which are neces- 
sary to its perfection. As no portion of the 
Church in its incomplete state could ever have 
devised or put in operation a perfectly reformed 
and corrected order of the Church, God Himself 
has come forth, and by special and extraordinary 
actings of the Holy Ghost, has reinstituted those 
ordinances which have in the past ages been 
lost sight of and disused. 

It is not the purpose of this tract to enter 
largely into this subject of the restored minis- 



THE PAR0USIA. 



39 



tries and gifts of the Holy Ghost, but in writing 
of the approach of the new dispensation, it was 
not possible to pass by altogether the work 
which God is doing to prepare His people for 
the appearing of His Son, and which work is 
the strongest argument for believing that the 
time for this great event is near at hand. It is 
now more than forty years since this work 
began. It is different from every other ecclesi- 
astical movement of which we read in history, 
in that it looks not to a long continued career 
of prosperity in the earth, but its avowed pur- 
pose is to prepare the Church for the translation 
which we are assured will take place in those 
who shall be found waiting for their Lord when 
He shall come from heaven. 

This work, in fact, is the Elias ministry for 
the present time. As when Christ was about 
to appear among the Jews He sent His messen- 
ger to prepare His way before Him, and those 
who received Him as their Messiah were those 
who had received the ministry of John, so at 
the present time God has sent forth His messen- 
gers to call His people back to the perfect order 
of His house, and to impart the grace that shall 
fit them to " stand before the Son of Man.'' 



40 



THE PAROUSIA. 



When the Lord shall appear He must find on 
the earth a body knit together in unity, and 
walking in His perfect way, ready to receive 
Him and enter with Him unto the marriage 
supper, clothed with the wedding garment. 
G-od would not leave His people without suffi- 
cient means for attaining the spiritual prepara- 
tion which such an event requires, and we need 
not think it an incredible thing that He should 
interpose in a special manner to provide the 
means for this end. For all who believe in and 
look forward to this Blessed Hope, there would 
seem to be a strong motive for rejoicing in and 
laying hold of such a provision for preparing 
them to partake in the glory that shall be re- 
vealed. 

The main question, however, is that of the 
reality of a new dispensation, and the object of 
this tract will be secured if it may have the 
effect to direct the attention of thoughtful Chris- 
tians to the teachings of the New Testament on 
this subject, and to incite them to inquire how 
they may be prepared to stand before the Son 
of Man in peace. 



THE PAROUSIA. 



4-1 



P. S. — Since the foregoing was written the 
author has seen a series of articles in the Chris- 
tian Mirror , published at Portland, in Maine, 
under the title of " The Parousia." The writer 
argues in accordance with what is said above 
for the meaning of the Parousia, as the Pres- 
ence, rather than as the Coming of Christ, but 
his object is to prove on this ground that there 
is to be no Second Advent of Christ. He lays 
much stress upon the fact that the disciples were 
exhorted to wait and watch for the Parousia as 
an event near at hand, and that the first Chris- 
tians and the Apostles themselves were expect- 
ing it in their life time, as a proof that the event 
so indicated must have taken place within that 
generation, and is not now to be looked for as 
future. And when he comes to state what his- 
torical event may be regarded as the fulfillment 
of the prophecy, he fixes upon the overthrow of 
the holy city and the final destruction of the 
Jewish polity as that event, and represents the 
whole period that has elapsed since then, includ- 
ing all that will elapse until the final consum- 
mation, as the period of the Parousia. 

But it may be asked what change took place 
in the relations between the Lord and His 



42 



THE PAROUSIA. 



Church at that time, that furnished any reason 
for regarding it as the Parousia ? Was the 
Lord any nearer personally, or was He present 
with His people in any other way after the fall 
of J erusalein, than He was before ? Were the 
manifestations of His Spirit in supernatural gifts 
any more abundant than before ? Nay, was 
not that just the time when the Church was 
deprived of the ministry of the two most con- 
spicuous apostles by martyrdom ? (Jerusalem 
was destroyed A. D. 70, and Peter and Paul 
are supposed to have been killed in A. D. 67.) 
And from the close of the first century after the 
death of St. John was there not a gradual dimi- 
nution in the degree of supernatural manifesta- 
tions in the Church until they were altogether 
lost ? What fact is there in the history of the 
Church that can be taken to indicate a change 
in the relations of the Church to her Head, such 
as is evidently involved in the idea of the Pa- 
rousia ? When can it be said that Christ was 
in any sense more personally present with the 
Church than in the Apostolic age ? It cannot 
be that the Parousia has yet come. As to the 
objection arising from the fact that it was ex- 
pected and looked for by the early Christians 



THE PAROUSIA. 



43 



as an event soon to occur, this has been in part 
referred to in the foregoing tract. A fuller 
answer may be made. 1. Time is no element 
in prophecy except in the few instances in which 
it is expressly declared. There is no time in 
the divine mind, and an event is spoken of as 
ideally and possibly near, when in fact it may 
be very remote. 2. The delay in the coming of 
the Lord is no part of the divine plan; it results 
from the unbelief and disobedience of the world 
which has refused to be prepared for the event. 
The advent of the Lord is not fixed as by a fate. 
"The times and the seasons, the Father hath 
kept in His own power." 3. The proper atti- 
tude for the Church should always have been 
that of waiting and watching for her Lord's 
return; therefore the exhortations to be watch- 
ing were always opportune, and it is only be- 
cause she has failed in holding fast her true 
hope that these exhortations seem inappropriate. 
These exhortations should have warned her that 
she had lost sight of the true meaning of the 
prophecies, and have awakened her to repent- 
ance. 4. If the predictions of the Parousia 
were fulfilled in the fall of Jerusalem and the 
Jewish polity, how came the Christians of the 



44 



THE PAROUSIA. 



first three centuries, as they certainly did, to be 
looking for the coming of Christ and anticipa- 
ting a millennium thereupon ? Were they so 
much in the dark as to the interpretation of the 
Scriptures, and so little aware of the significance 
of facts which had occurred in their history and 
which were known to all, as to overlook so im- 
portant an event if it really had occurred ? 
Whatever difficulties may present themselves in 
reasoning upon times and seasons, there can be 
no difficulty in deciding that the Parousia has 
not yet occurred, and consequently that it is 
still to be looked for. What the nature of the 
event is, it is the aim of the preceding to show. 

" Behold I come as a thief. Blessed is he that 
watcheth and keepeth his garments, lest he walk 
naked and men see his shame." 



ASTEN, 0 GrOD, THE TIME WHEN THOU 



j — l shalt send from thy right hand hlm 
whom thou wilt send ; at whose appearing 
thy Saints departed shall be raised, and we 
who are alive shall be caught up to meet 
Him, and so shall be ever with Him. Under 
the veil of earthly things we have now 
communion with hlm ; but with unveiled face 
we shall then behold hlm, rejoicing in hls 
glory, made like unto hlm in hls glory ; and 
by hlm we with all thy church, holy and 
unspotted, shall be presented with exceed- 
ing joy before the presence of thy glory. 

{Prayer from the Apostle? Liturgy of the Holy Eucharist.) 




